Georgian judokas finish first: claim one bronze, four gold medals at world championship

Georgian judokas have claimed one bronze and four gold medals at the junior world championship in Olbia, Italy, finishing at the first place in the medal ranking.

The gold medallists are:

• Giorgi Sardalashvili – under 60kg category
• Giorgi Sherazadishvili – under 81kg category
• Ilia Sulamanidze – under 100kg category
• Saba Inaneishvili – over 100kg category

Judoka Irakli Demetrashvili has claimed bronze in the over 100g category.

The International Judo Federation (IJF) says Sulamanidze, ‘already the winner of several World Judo Tour medals, of the senior world championships bronze medal in Budapest this year and a former junior world silver medallist’, has now become the new junior world champion too.

Before the final my coach was talking a lot and I said, ‘don’t worry, I’m ready.’ I started slowly and after 2 minutes I started to push. Then I threw just as I expected", Ilia Sulamanidze told IJF following his victory yesterday.

Introducing Saba Inaneishvili as ‘a judoka, a full-blooded Georgian’ IJF says in a heartbreaking story that he is ‘a member of that school of warriors who breathe judo through every pore of their skin'.

He has travelled to Olbia to participate in the Junior World Championships. Georgia is known to be a judo country, always getting results and in Italy it has swept through the medal table, with four gold medals and one bronze“, IJF says about Saba.

It further notes that ‘all this was part of the country's plan and the world of judo can only admire the optimal performance of one of the beacons of our sport’. 

The first world championships organised after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games kicked off on October 6 in the town of Olbia hosting a total of 495 competitors from 72 countries, including Georgia.